BOROUGH PRESIDENT LEADS COALITION OF ELECTED OFFICIALS, COMMUNITY LEADERS, LEGAL SCHOLARS, AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN RENAMING REQUEST TO MAYOR DE BLASIO, ACTIVATING ONLINE PETITION TO SHOWCASE ADDITIONAL PUBLIC SUPPORT

BROOKLYN, NY, September 27, 2018: Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams launched a campaign to rename the Brooklyn Municipal Building, an historic edifice in Downtown Brooklyn that houses a number of City offices, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a native of Flatbush and noted civil rights champion who is celebrating her 25th year as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He activated an online petition at Change.org/RBG calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to grant the honor — similar to the action taken to rename the Manhattan Municipal Building after former Mayor David Dinkins — and publicly released his written request sent to the mayor last week that was jointly signed by a coalition of elected officials, community leaders, legal scholars, and women’s rights activists. Borough President Adams first proposed this renaming last November as part of testimony he submitted to the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, highlighting the opportunity to have the city’s buildings better reflect its diverse history and community fabric. In his letter to Mayor de Blasio, he further outlined why Justice Ginsburg was deserving of this unique honor at this time in history.

“In an era where popular culture puts performing artists and sports stars on a public pedestal, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has risen to incredible levels of iconic admiration and love,” wrote Borough President Adams. “Society often waits to recognize a lifetime of accomplishment until after that lifetime ends. In this case, we can honor the life and service of Ruth Bader Ginsburg during what we hope will be a long and active remaining life.”

Justice Ginsburg was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, the second daughter of Celia and Nathan Bader. Her father was a Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine, while her mother was born in New York to Austrian Jewish parents. She began to be called “Ruth” upon starting school, when her mother noticed that the class had several other girls named Joan. Justice Ginsburg grew up in Flatbush, attending the East Midwood Jewish Center with her family and studying in New York City public schools until she graduated from James Madison High School. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and finished first in her class at Columbia Law School. Later, she became the first tenured woman at Columbia Law School, teaching there from 1972 to 1980 and co-authoring the first law school casebook on sex discrimination. Justice Ginsburg began her distinguished legal career as a leading advocate for women’s rights, co-founding the Women’s Rights Law Reporter in 1970, the first American law journal to focus exclusively on women’s rights, as well as the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1972. As director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, she argued a number of gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court, and her work has been credited with making major legal advances for women; former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 2015 TIME magazine profile of Justice Ginsburg that “she became the leading (and very successful) litigator on behalf of women’s rights — the Thurgood Marshall of that cause, so to speak.” In 1980, President Jimmy Carter nominated her to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until President Bill Clinton’s nomination of her to the Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg became the second-ever woman to serve on the nation’s highest court, and the first of Jewish heritage; in 2016, she surpassed former Associate Justice Louis Brandeis’ longevity to become the longest-serving Jewish justice in Supreme Court history. She has survived battles with colon cancer, back in 1999, and with pancreatic cancer 10 years later. Justice Ginsburg had two children with her late husband Martin, and is also a grandmother of four.

“The life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a quintessential New York story,” wrote Borough President Adams. “She rose to the apex of her profession, staying true to her ideals and principles. [Justice] Ginsburg has become an icon, affectionately referred to as the ‘Notorious RBG’.”

Borough President Adams has been joined in this campaign by a diverse group of New Yorkers, including State Senator Brian Kavanagh; Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon; Council Members Margaret Chin, Stephen F. Levin, Carlina Rivera, and Helen Rosenthal; Brooklyn Bar Association (BBA); Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP); Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA); Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS); Brooklyn Law School (BLS); Columbia Law School; District Council 37 (DC37); Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP); East Midwood Jewish Center (EMJC); James Madison High School Alumni Association; Lambda Legal; League of Women Voters of the City of New York (LWVNYC); Long Island University (LIU); New York Junior League (NYJL); National Organization of Women – New York City (NOW-NYC); Planned Parenthood of New York City, and YWCA Brooklyn.

“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is a lifelong champion of women’s rights and sexual and reproductive rights,” said Christina Chang, chief external affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of New York City. “She has always understood our right to make decisions about our bodies and our futures as fundamental to our equality in society. We join Brooklyn Borough President Adams’ call for Mayor de Blasio to rename the Municipal Building to honor the life and fierce advocacy of Justice Ginsberg, whose dedicated legal career has been instrumental in the fight for gender equity.”

“All Americans, and especially her fellow New Yorkers, can take pride in Justice Ginsburg’s continuing legacy of fairness and equality before the law in her decades on the bench,” said Council Member Margaret S. Chin, co-chair of the Women’s Caucus. “I am proud to join Borough President Adams, my colleagues in city and state government, the legal and religious community in this broad effort to mark Justice Ginsberg’s contributions to our great nation by renaming the Brooklyn Municipal Building in her honor.”

“Over the course of her storied career, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has inspired Americans of diverse background and perspectives,” said State Senator Kavanagh. “The brilliance and tenacity that enabled her to overcome discrimination early in her own life, her trailblazing work as a legal scholar and professor, her extraordinary successes as an advocate for justice and equal treatment for men and women, and of course the intellectual and moral leadership she has exercised as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court — all make her a truly transformative figure in the life of our nation, even as we continue the struggle to live up to our highest ideals. Many New Yorkers, and Brooklynites in particular, are proud to claim Justice Ginsburg as one of our own, and it would be fitting for the Brooklyn Municipal Building to bear her name. I thank Borough President Adams for his leadership in bringing this coalition together.”

“Justice Ginsburg is one of the greatest legal minds our country has ever produced and a shining example of the work ethic that countless New York women like myself learn growing up in the Five Boroughs,” said Council Member Rivera, co-chair of the Women’s Caucus. “The ‘Notorious RBG’ paved a trailblazing career that epitomizes our city’s dedication to service and she deserves to be honored permanently here in her home borough of Brooklyn.”

“It’s time to honor one of Brooklyn’s preeminent natives, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by renaming the Brooklyn Municipal Building after her,” said Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon. “From her upbringing in Flatbush, to her time on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg has been a shining example of Brooklyn tenacity and strength. Her fight for equal rights has been unparalleled and renaming the Municipal Building would both recognize and honor her contributions to Brooklyn and beyond.”

“We have a unique opportunity to honor feminist icon and Brooklyn legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg and everything she stands for — equal rights and justice for all — right here in Downtown Brooklyn,” said Regina Myer, president of DBP. “Renaming the Brooklyn Municipal Building will not only help preserve Justice Ginsburg’s important legacy and continued service, but also remind New Yorkers of her connection to this great borough. We urge Mayor de Blasio to take action on this issue and, in doing so, immortalize Justice Ginsburg’s guiding values and ideals for generations to come.”

“The Alumni Association and all Madison alumni look upon Ruth as the most distinguished Madison graduate of a school that boasts as many if not more distinguished alumni than any other public school in the country, certainly in NYC,” said Martha Weinstein Alpert, president of James Madison High School Alumni Association. “Everyone is so proud of her and received this news with applause.”

“The Brooklyn Heights Association endorses renaming the Brooklyn Municipal Building for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.,” said Peter L. Bray, executive director of BHA. “More than just a native daughter of the borough, she has had a distinguished career as an ardent legal advocate, both on and off the Supreme Court, for the rights of all in American society. Though diminutive in stature, her work and legacy will always stand tall when her contributions are assessed in the future.”

“From birth to the bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life is one marked by strength, determination, and the pursuit of equal rights for all,” said Heidi Lee Henderson, executive director of the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP). “A Brooklynite, a fierce advocate for justice, a woman devoted to the law and lifting the voice of the voiceless — this is Justice Ginsburg. Driven by facts and the reasonable notion of equality, the ‘Notorious RBG’ not only inspires, but challenges us to confront difficult conversation and pursue change in the interest of all. Justice Ginsburg embodies the core values of the VLP’s mission of social justice and access for all Brooklyn residents. For these reasons and more, the VLP urges Mayor de Blasio to rename Joralemon Street’s Brooklyn Municipal Building for Justice Ginsburg in recognition of her many accomplishments and continued service.”

“The YWCA Brooklyn enthusiastically supports renaming the Brooklyn Municipal Building after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose lifetime achievements have done so much to advance the status of women in this country,” said Martha Kamber, CEO and president of the YWCA Brooklyn. “Justice Ginsburg is not only a champion for women’s rights, but over the course of her long, distinguished career, has become a national symbol for exemplary leadership, integrity, thoughtful action and public service.”

“Justice Ginsburg spent her youth at the East Midwood Jewish Center,” said Wayne M. Rosenfeld, executive director of EMJC. “The very foundation of her inner self was formed during the time she spent with us. It gives great pleasure to strongly advocate for her name to be graced on a public building in her own hometown.”

“Brooklyn Historical Society is proud to endorse the effort to have the Brooklyn Municipal Building named in honor of Justice Ginsburg,” said Deborah Schwartz, president of BHS. “As the head of an institution that upholds the ideals of a democratic and egalitarian society, I can think of no other living public figure more worthy of being recognized in the naming of one of Brooklyn’s central government buildings. With this gesture, all Brooklynites will have the opportunity to hold her work ethic, her belief in social justice, and her professional accomplishments in their hearts and minds for decades to come and beyond.”

“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lifetime of legal advocacy for equality has left an indelible mark on our nation’s struggle for justice,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women of New York. “Her tenacious spirit, undiminished resilience continue to pave the way forward and her enduring popularity knows no age, class or color boundaries. With so few monuments to celebrate and uphold the pioneering women of this country, we wait with anticipation to see Justice Ginsburg ascend to the ranks held too often by only men.”

The 203-foot-tall Brooklyn Municipal Building, located at the southwest corner of Court and Joralemon streets, was built in 1924 by McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin, designed in the neoclassical style and constructed of granite and limestone. It primarily serves as office space for government agencies such as the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), New York City Department of Finance (DOF), and New York City Department of Probation (DOP), and Office of the City Clerk. The building is managed by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), and in 2011 it was recognized as part of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District.